On Permanent Ink, permanency and safety

[Morbus Curiositas]

On Permanent Inks.


I have noticed that there have been a lot of discussions on Permanent inks. A lot of questions have risen through time. I will list a few of them below and try to answer them as good as possible.


Is it safe for fountain pens
What are the requirements for a ink to be considered permanent
Are they really permanent
Can these inks be used without doubts/regular Fountain Pen maintenance



Is it safe for Fountain Pens?
This depends on what the ink is made of. Throughout history inks were made with either soot or Iron gall. The advantage is they are very permanent and lightfast. The disadvantage is that they are not safe for fountain pens.

Iron Gall inks
Iron gall inks damage the Nib and clog up the nib and feed. Iron gall, because off the iron gall acid may also damage the paper. They tend to ‘eat away the paper’. An example of this ‘eating away the paper can be found in the archives of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). Although the ink is perfectly legible, the paper from the 17th century is severely damaged today.

Soot based inks.

Soot has been used for Ink making since the antiquity. I have published an article on that called “Ink History Antiquity”. You can find the article following the link below.


A major advantage of these inks is that they are not only permanent. But they are truly black. This being truly black isn’t always the case today. Down here you find a link of my Fountain pen hero SBRE Brown. In this video he tests several black inks to see whether they are really black or more like greyish.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvfGrJIpKBQ

These soot based inks are for Fountain Pens because they clog the feed of the pens.:(

Beware both Iron Gall and Soot based inks your beloved Fountain Pen!:)

What are the requirements for a ink to be considered permanent.

To be considered permanent and suitable for use by i.e. lawyer and registers. The ink has to comply with certain standards. The international certification is ISO 12757-2.

Requirements for permancy

· Waterproofness
· Light fastness
· Resistance against any outer (chemical) influences
· The ink may not be removed without damaging the paper

· Light fastness can be tested with the wool scale. A scale for testing light fastness in the textile and offset industry

stars
grades

Wool Scale


Comes from German and is a way to test the lightfastness in the Textileand Off set Industry


1 und 2
not light fast
*
3
Very little light fast
**
4
Little lightfast
***
5 und 6
Light fast
****
7
Highly light fast
*****
8
Highest light fastness


• Resistance against any outer (chemical) influences
It has to be resistant against chemical substances like alcohol or cleaning agents

• The ink may not be removed without damaging the paper
This way the texts cannot be manipulated without leaving traces

This is achieved by a certain surface tension. The ink has to drench in order to be permanent. This is what the old inks, as described in the VOC example, did.
In a review on the new Montblanc permanent inks on FPN this ink was praised for the absence of bleed through. This means that the ink is sort of ‘laying on the paper’, without drenching the fibres of the paper. Whether this ink is truly permanent is questionable. :(

The ink has to drench the paper without damaging it. The disadvantage of bleed trough can be countered by the use of thicker paper like =>100 grs or by using a finer nib.

Are they really permanent?

There are now inks on the market that are both permanent and safe for Fountain Pens.
As mentioned above they have to apply to the ISO 12757-2 standard and drench the paper.
These inks are truly permanent and suited for use by lawyers, doctors and registrars




Down here are some manufactures that produce permanent or bulletproof inks

· Noodlers www.noodlersink.com

Do not only make flexible nibs (for line variation and nice shading of inks)

They also have nice variety of bulletproof inks in several colours :)

Just a warning on the Noodlers Baystate Blue as mentioned by the Foutain Pen Professor Richard Binder on it’s website

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a617/Morbus_Curiositas/RichardBinder_zps23cbe7a3.jpg

But since this article only mentions the Bay State Blue… Just go for their other nice Bulletproof inks :)

· Montblanc Permanent Ink www.montblanc.com
Is it truly permanent see above
Quite expensive
Nice bottles though

Caution: As far as I know the old Montblanc inks were based on iron gall, although I am not sure.Better be careful:wave:

· De Atramentis www.deatramentis.com www.tinten-online.de
De Atramentis is a small German company with a vast array of (255) inks. Their nano particle document ink apply with the ISO 12757-2 and do drench the paper

Following colours are available
Blue, Dark Blue, Black, Magenta, Turquoise.

A green document inks is being developed at the moment

I have already poste a review on DA Document Ink Blue. It is not cheap (€18 /$20 a 30 ml. bottle). But it is truly permanent and writes superbly :D
http://www.fountainp...s-document-ink/

I am working on a review on the DA Document Ink Dark Blue now which is a Black blue Ink.
I have posted a photo of a handwritten page here.

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a617/Morbus_Curiositas/DaDarkbluesamplerFPNsmallest_zps4eacbea0.jpg

The full review of DA Document black will be online soon (with scans) as will the other DA Document colours will be too soon.

Can these inks be used without doubts/regular Fountain Pen maintenance
NO NO NO!!!

Richard Binder THE Fountain Pen Professor :) has written a nice article on that. With nano particle ink you should clean your Fountain Pen regularly. I have been using De Atramentis Document ink for about a year now. I always have In of my pens filled with it. I clean it every 2-3 month and hav not experienced any problems what so ever.

http://richardspens.com/ Article:Inks The good the Bad and the Ugly
Most Ink Companies warn you to clean your Fountain Pen more often if you use permanent ink. Please do so :excl:

In fact always clean your Fountain Pens every 2-3 months :whip:


Too conclude

I am very much interested in your experiences with permanent inks. And I would like to see some of your reviews with Noodler’s Bullet proof inks.

I Hope this was informative. For more information check the excellent website of Richard Binder. THE Fountain Pen Professor.

Warmest regards,


Peter

[kallenpj]

Historical iron gall inks were not all make with correct proportions and therefore ended up with an overage of acid after the appropriate reactions took place. Most modern iron gall inks have less iron gall content (at least the ones I use) and are more chemically balanced.

[kallenpj]

Also I have seen that there is more chloride based mixes as opposed to sulfates. Less corrosive as I understand it. The timing of this threads coincides nicely with what I have been reading about

[Brisboy]

Enjoyed reading that, thank you. Must get some permanent ink to keep inked in one of my pens. I rarely use black of my own volition so it irks me when I have to fill something out in black and must resort to a cheap ball point (Ew). I do have done Parker black but I don't think it's permanent.

[welch]

Old Parker Quink Royal Blue (the art deco bottles from the 40s) is very stubborn. It does not want to wash off. That's why so many parents insisted that kids of my generation (started writing in the late 50s) use "washable" inks. You are (and we were) more likely to spill ink on ourselves or on wood floors than to spill water on our writing. It's easy enough to put papers in a folder, put the folder into something else, and put that inside a knapsack.

Noodlers permanent inks bond to paper and wood. Not a happy event if you spill a few drops on your pants.

Maintenance? Inks with unusual features might have unusual additives, but many people report that Noodlers, and others, are not too risky. (Baystate Blue requires special care).

When I want more-than-usual permanence, I use a base of Pilot Blue and add Iroshizuku Asa-Gao for eye-appeal. I also mix Diamine Sapphire with old Quink.

Oh, almost forgot: no ink will survive the death of the paper it's written on. Current paper is closer to newsprint than paper was 50 years ago. If you want something to last 100 years, check the paper, as well. Resistance to sunlight? Remember how the Essenes store the Dead Sea Scrolls: in jars. We know about the "Gnostic Gospels" because monks put the writings inside sacks and buried them. Libraries store old books away from light. Good examples.

[AndyT]

Oh, almost forgot: no ink will survive the death of the paper it's written on. Current paper is closer to newsprint than paper was 50 years ago.

Indeed. I recently transcribed an article on paper making written in the 1830s, and there is no mention of wood pulp whatever. For a proven track record of permanence you're looking at things like papyrus, parchment, linen and rag papers, and lamp black ink. Closely followed by iron gall. But the most important factor, surely, is storage.